THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photograph by Maynard Owen Williams
IN THE MAIN THOROUGHFARE OF SAGONE
The autobusses from Ajaccio, Vico, and Ota, via Piana, all meet here. There are not more than
a dozen houses in this hamlet, which once was a wealthy community.
tunity to record photographically a fact
that no longer obtains. Not a Mona Lisa
nor Greek goddess did I see.
Some enemy of the town recently left
there a consignment of the most offensive
green paint that ever assailed from afar
the human eve-a color which must have
been conceived in a delirium. It has be
come the custom to paint the shutters of
the pink and light yellow houses with this
awful stuff. One of the most pretentious
houses in Cargese stands between the two
churches, and this disfiguring paint has
rendered it the most atrocious edifice I
have seen in an island where barrack-like
buildings have the good taste to be incon
spicuous, if not entirely pleasing to the
eye.
One cannot tell how sleepy the town
of Cargese is; he can only say that the
Ajacciens find it slow.
The labor is
largely vocal. The shepherd lies in the
sun and shouts or whistles to his flock.
The hired man in the olive-oil mill, by
shouting at him, scares speed into the
worn Samson of a horse that turns the
rollers. The postman stands outside and
pages the people for whom he has mail.
One could achieve fame in Cargese by
getting his name on a good mailing list,
for the postman is an energetic Stentor,
even if lead has replaced the wings of
Mercury upon his reluctant feet.
The women wear a peculiar straw hat
like a child's beach hat, which is, of
course, black. They are as industrious
in Cargese as elsewhere. In Corsica it is
not necessary to note whether an ap
proaching form wears skirt or trousers.
If it carries a burden, it is probably a
woman.
PIANA IIAS NO REPUTATION TO UPHOLD
Piana, an attractive little town backed
by the Calanche and overlooking the in
comparable Gulf of Porto, comes as a
distinct relief.
There are probably as many men sun
ning themselves in front of the church in
Piana as there are in front of the two
churches of Cargese. The little girls who
bound their rubber balls, and then whirl
quickly to bound them again, betray as
great a need of underwear as in Cargese.
The boys are as apt to start a hue and
cry that will fill the picturesque old
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